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Recap / Monster Rancher S2 E15: Tiger Meets His Match

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Lilim sends Jagd Hound after the Searchers. After being fought to a standstill, he flees the scene and escapes up a cliffside. Tiger follows him up and tracks him back to the cave where Lilim and her Evil Hares are waiting, but gets caught and chased off.

Jagd Hound catches up with him, and quickly proves his equal. During the the standoff that follows, Jagd Hound reveals that his hometown was destroyed by Moo's forces, save for a baby whom he was trusted with protecting. Unfortunately, Lilim managed to get her hands on the kid and is blackmailing him with his safety.

One of Lilim's Evil Hares interrupts their conversation and demands that Jagd Hound finish Tiger off already. Jagd Hound apologizes, and they fire off their Lightning attacks again...

...and Jagd Hound returns to the cave alone, presenting Lilim with a lost disc.

The next morning, once the rain lets up, the other Searchers climb up and search for Tiger. Upon hearing this, Lilim sends Jagd Hound after them, along with most of her Evil Hares... but instructs a couple of them to remain behind and 'take care of the baby'. She then makes a big show of showing them the lost disc of their fallen friend, much to their shock.

Enraged, the other monsters attack Jagd Hound, until Genki yells at them to stop — he wants to be the one who takes Jagd Hound down. Their duel lasts long enough that Lilim grows impatient and tries to take the boy out with a cheap shot, only to get blocked by another Lightning bolt — fired off by Tiger. With Jagd Hound's help, he faked his death in order to lure her off her guard, then rescued the baby. Now that she can't force Jagd Hound to help her anymore, Lilim gets driven off, and the Searchers part ways with him on good terms.


This episode contains examples of:

  • Angrish: Hare's reaction to Suezo teasing him for defending Tiger's honor.
  • Ass Kicks You: Played for Laughs; Hare gets right up in Suezo's face while yelling at him, so when he turns away in a huff, he hip checks him to boot.
  • Asshole Victim: The Evil Hare who gets killed so that Tiger can fake his own death.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Tiger shows up just in time to save Genki from Lilim's cheap shot, with her former hostage safely in tow.
  • Book Ends: Near the start of the episode, Tiger lets Mocchi ride on his back, much to the younger monster's delight. During the denouncement, Mocchi tries to climb on again, only for Tiger to roughly shrug him off, revealing that he only let him on previously because he was concerned that he might have put on some weight and was using him to burn some extra calories.
  • Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Seen when Hare gets teased for insisting that Tiger's way stronger than Jagd Hound:
    Suezo: Does Tiger know he's got a fan~?
    Hare: [butting his face into Suezo's eyeball] Grrraaaaaaaahhhhh—! Let's just change the subject because we can't do anything anyway!
  • Cute, but Cacophonic: At one point, the baby's crying makes several of the Evil Hares clutch their ears with pain while trying to get him to stop.
  • Faking the Dead: This turns out to have been Tiger's plan all along.
  • Forced into Evil: The only reason Jagd Hound's helping Lilim is because she kidnapped the baby he's been protecting.
  • Foreshadowing: While Tiger's helping Genki gather food, he casually comments "What would you do without me, kid?" When Genki laughs that off, Tiger turns more serious, saying that someday Genki won't be able to rely on him anymore.
  • Heroic BSoD: All of the other Searchers upon being presented with Tiger's lost disc. In particular, Hare goes into a Thousand-Yard Stare followed by Unstoppable Rage, while Genki goes into a slow boil building up into Leave Him to Me!.
  • Hostile Weather: The main reason that the Searchers didn't follow Tiger up the cliffside sooner is that the rain got too severe, forcing them to wait until it let up the next day.
  • I Have Your Wife: Lilim forces Jagd Hound to help by threatening the life of the baby he's been protecting.
    Hare: [near tears] Who am I supposed to fight with now that Tiger's gone?
  • Leave Him to Me!: Genki asks the other Searchers to let him fight Jagd Hound himself, "For Tiger."
  • Mook Chivalry: While watching Jagd Hound fight the Searchers, Lilim notices one of her Evil Hares about to attack and orders him to stand down, saying that it's better to let them wear themselves out fighting each other first. Ironically, she later turns around and breaks this herself when she grows impatient with Genki and Jagd Hound's duel, trying to blast Genki while he's distracted.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • When the Evil Hare interrupts Jagd Hound and demands he finish Tiger off already, he unintentionally provides Tiger with exactly what he needs to get out of the fight: a lost disc.
    • Lilim making her Evil Hares stand down so the Searchers and Jagd Hound can wear each other out by fighting first also buys Tiger more time to retrieve the baby and track them down.
  • No Sympathy: Downplayed; When Jagd Hound reveals his backstory to Tiger, Tiger comments that he failed to keep his promise to protect the child and is taking it out on them.
  • Nothing Personal: Jagd Hound assures Tiger of this; he has no grudge against the Searchers, and is only attacking them due to Lilim holding his baby hostage.
  • Once More, with Clarity: After Tiger's revealed to be alive after all, a Flashback to the end of his duel with Jagd Hound shows how he convinced him to work together.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Lilim keeps her minions from interfering with the fight because she wants both the Searchers and Jagd Hound to wear themselves out first. However, her patience ultimately runs out and she fires off a cheap shot at Genki.
  • Really Dead Montage: When Lilim presents them with Tiger's Lost Disc, each of the Searchers has a brief flash of memory about their fallen friend.
  • Secretly Selfish: Played for Laughs; the only reason Tiger invited Mocchi to ride on his back was to use him as an impromptu form of weight training. When he casually reveals this to the others, they react with exaggerated disgust, catching him off-guard.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Genki invokes this by telling the rest of the team to stand down and let him challenge Jagd Hound alone, recalling Tiger's earlier words about how he needed to learn how to handle himself without him.
  • Thousand-Yard Stare: Hare displays one when it looks like Tiger was killed, slumping to his knees and staring blankly into the distance while the others are all looking at the lost disc in despair.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds:
    • Despite their rivalry, during the first fight with Jagd Hound, Hare calls for Tiger to cover him, trusting that he'll do just that while he attacks. This teamwork turns the tide and forces their opponent to flee.
    • While they're worrying about Tiger's prolonged absence, Hare angrily declares that Tiger's much stronger than Jagd Hound, then gets flustered when he's teased over this. And when Lilim presents them with Tiger's lost disc, he's the first to attack Jagd Hound in an Unstoppable Rage, briefly shedding tears.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Lilim threatens Jagd Hound by making a show of keeping her Femme Fatalons close to the baby's face. Once she thinks that he's reaching the end of his usefulness, she discreetly tells a few of her Evil Hares to dispose of the child.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: The rest of the Searchers react this way to Tiger revealing that he only let Mocchi ride on him in hopes of burning off a few extra pounds.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Jagd Hound has presented her with Tiger's lost disc and is prepared to confront the rest of the Searchers, Lilim plans to have him wear himself out fighting the heroes. She also whispers to one of her Evil Hares that "I don't think that we'll be needing this baby anymore," effectively ordering him to get rid of their hostage.

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